This invention relates to the field of product dispensing or vending equipment, and, more particularly, to that general class of such machines in which products are stored in and dispensable from separate compartments of movable product carriers adapted to be brought into registry with a dispensing zone provided with separately shiftable product access closures respectively disposed for denying or permitting access to the product within a corresponding compartment of a carrier registered with the dispensing zone.
As will become more apparent hereinafter, however, it should be pointed out that the present invention is specifically concerned with providing a distinctly new type of machine within the mentioned general class, which is characterized by its automatic control of sequential dispensing of products in a predetermined order, as contrasted with earlier machines involving essentially manual control of dispensing on a user determined, selective and non-ordered basis.
The mentioned earlier machines, with which we are familiar, are of a type commonly referred as "general merchandiser machines," and are typified by the apparatuses disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,556,284 and 3,770,105, both issued to the same assignee as the owner of this invention. The purpose of such general merchandiser machines is to provide the user with the widest possible selection of different products from those that can be stored within a given space. To that end, such general merchandiser machines employ a cabinet having a product access opening leading to a dispensing zone and provided with a plurality of individually shiftable product access closures of which any one may be selectively opened by a user (after appropriate coinage deposit in a vending environment) together with an endless conveyor arrangement provided with a plurality of product carriers that may be selectively positioned by the user in registry with the dispensing zone, each of which carriers has a plurality of separate product compartments each respectively aligned with a corresponding one of the product access closures. Thus, with such prior machines, the basic mode of operation is characterized by a user being able to first select and control the positioning of any particular carrier containing the desired product in one of its compartments into registry with the dispensing zone, then being able to gain access to the selected product by selectively opening the appropriate one of the access closures. The control and operating portions of such general merchandiser machines have typically been predominately electrical and characterized by the use of numerous product selection switches, closure unlocking solenoids and the like.